Mobile Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) is a broadband wireless access technology based on Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.16 standard. Mobile WiMAX uses a scalable orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) scheme to deliver wireless broadband packet data services to mobile terminals.
In current IEEE 802.16 based WiMAX networks, when a device performs disconnection from the WiMAX network, the device's context is removed from the network. For example, a device is capable of communicating with network system A and network system B. If the device determines that it is in the coverage area of both the systems, the device may decide to disconnect from system A and connect to system B for communication needs.
The device which disconnects from a network only to connect to another radio access technology (RAT) will have to perform full network entry when the device returns to the same network. It is likely that the device will suffer long latency during the process.